Case Study: Habib’s, August 2016 ©StarLeafwww.starleaf.com

The world’s largest Middle-Eastern restaurant chain reduces costs and strengthens communications using StarLeaf

Brazilian restaurant chain Habib’s uses StarLeaf cloud video conferencing and calling to

build business relationships.

From the global phenomenon that fiercely protects the Colonel’s recipe to Ronald the clown, practically all fast food chains are franchise businesses. Apart from the menu, there are many ingredients needed for success, not least of which is the brand, consistency of product, and operational efficiency. It’s up to the franchisor to ensure that all of its franchisees are trained, on message, and on brand. Critical too is an ever-watchful eye on costs, market trends, and copycat competitors.

The ability to maintain and build upon brand equity, while staying on top of the customers’ evolving tastes, is at the heart of one of Brazil’s most pervasive restaurants – Habib’s. With approximately 500 restaurants, Habib’s satisfies Brazil’s love for Middle-Eastern inspired food. However, as with all franchises, Habib’s complex logistics and operations are further exacerbated by the need to manage relationships across a vast geography. To address the need for closer working relationships with its franchise partners while reducing costs, Habib’s decided to look for a video conferencing solution.

With several video conferencing vendors in the running, Habib’s chose StarLeaf’s cloud solution and hardware and software endpoints. Cloud of course meant that Habib’s did not need any on-premise infrastructure, or the skills to maintain it. In addition, Habib’s recognized that StarLeaf offered a greater advantage over other vendors as its software client, Breeze, comes at no extra charge.

Case Study: Habib’s, August 2016 ©StarLeafwww.starleaf.com

“I could see immediately how implementing StarLeaf’s solutions could dramatically reduce our travel costs, but what also appealed was the potential for cementing relationships with our franchisees. These relationships are critical to our business success”, says Renan Campoy, Infrastructure and Security Manager at Habib’s.

Habib’s is a highly distributed business, with some offices a four-hour flight away from the head office, and franchise partners widely dispersed throughout the country. To keep everyone connected, Habib’s has equipped many meeting rooms in all of its offices with StarLeaf GT Minis, and has widely distributed the software client Breeze.

“A decisive factor for us in choosing StarLeaf was the ability to operate with other video conferencing systems. And because Breeze can be installed and used for free by people inside and outside the company, we can communicate easily and quickly within our supply chain by sending them an invite to download Breeze”, said Campoy.

Deploying StarLeaf was simple: “Because the solution is so easy to use, we were able to immediately set it to work, with video conferencing becoming accessible to everyone

and no requirement for specialist skills or technical knowledge. A great fit for us in terms of corporate culture”, explains Campoy.

Habib’s hopes to reap even more benefits in the future as employees start to integrate video conferencing into their everyday tool kit: “I believe that StarLeaf will improve working practices and collaboration across all aspects of our organization, allowing content sharing for presentations and helping to improve relationships throughout the business”, concludes Campoy.

Video conferencing adoption in Brazil is not as widespread as it is elsewhere in the world.

Traditionally, it is only used by very large enterprises with the resources to deploy and manage costly systems. Habib’s has bucked this trend by capitalizing on the affordability, ease-of-use, and scalability of a cloud solution. Not only this, with StarLeaf, Habib’s benefits from a truly interoperable system and a feature set that includes ad hoc and scheduled conferencing, allowing it to hold multiparty meetings, as well as the ability to easily make direct calls. As Campoy notes, employees can reach anyone by video, which is helping Habib’s to enhance and build upon its relationships while ensuring that, together with its partners, it’s able to keep satisfying its customers.